Canada’s Top Cybersecurity Threats: How Attackers Target Critical Industries

As Canada experiences rapid digital growth across various sectors, it has become an increasingly attractive target for cyber threats. From government and finance to healthcare and telecommunications, Canadian industries are widely adopting digital solutions, exposing them to unique security challenges.

With accelerated digital transformation and the expansion of online services, the country faces a rising tide of vulnerabilities to cyberattacks. This report provides an in-depth analysis of Canada’s threat landscape, offering organizations actionable intelligence to strengthen their defenses and ensure a secure and resilient digital environment for individuals and enterprises across the nation.

Key Insights

• Finance and Insurance is the most targeted industry, with 12,66% of all the posts targeting it. The Retail Trade industry takes second place with 10,63% of the posts and Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses was the third industry with 7,71% of all the dark web forum posts.

• Threat actors targeting Canada mostly sold the content they obtained. The Selling category is in first place with 60,88% of all the posts from dark web forums, followed by Sharing, which comprises 31,52% of the posts. In third place, we have Hack Announcements, with 7,60% of the posts.

• When we look at the type of information published on dark web forums, we see that Databases takes the first spot with 48,92% of all the posts. The second most popular type of information threat actors share is content related to Access (sales/shares etc.) which takes 32,60% of the posts. On the third spot, we have Website attacks (defacements, DDoS attacks etc.) with 8,9% of the posts.

• The most targeted industry by ransomware groups was the Manufacturing industry, with 21,11% of all the attacks. The Professional, Scientific and Technical Services industry took the second spot with 12,22% of the attacks, and Retail Trade was the third one with 5,56% of the attacks.

• Our analysis shows that the most active ransomware group targeting Canada was LockBit, which is responsible for 30,3% of all the attacks in total. The second most active group was the Play Ransomware, with 24,4% of all the attacks. In third place, we have Medusa Ransomware with 22,7% of all the ransomware attacks targeting Canada.

• SOCRadar’s stealer log data from Canada’s most visited platforms reveals sensitive information, including 208,010email and password combinations, 45,742password hashes, 30,804 unique victim IP addresses and 18,392 credit card details.
• The Cryptocurrency&NFT industry in Canada faced the most phishing attacks with 31,66% of the total attempts. The Public Administration industry was on the second spot with 11,24% of the attacks and Information Services was targeted with 10,95%.

Why You Need This Report

Our comprehensive analysis is built on a combination of open-source intelligence and proprietary research. By understanding these insights, stakeholders in Canada can:

• Strengthen their cybersecurity measures
• Mitigate risks more effectively
• Enhance their resilience against future cyber threats

Unlock the full Canada Threat Landscape Report to equip your organization with the intelligence needed to stay ahead of cyber adversaries.